Vending machine



J. F. MEYER VENDING MACHINE Filed Feb. 14 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l July 13 1926 Ju1y13,1926. y 1,592,285

.3. F. MEYER l VENDINGMMAGHINE Filed Feb. 14.??25 5 .2 sneetsheet 2 lPaternal July 1'3", 192e.

JOHN E. MEYER, E oHIcAGo, ILLINOIS.

i VENDING MACHINE.

Application led February 14,- '1925;r Serial No. 9,077.

The principal object of my invention is to provide a vending machine embodying devices which will effectually prevent improper and fraudulent operation thereof and which will insure that operation can only be performed after insertion of a proper coin.

A. further object is to provide a vending machine of improved construction, whlch 1 0 may be inexpensively made, but which shall nevertheless have the necessary strength.

Another object of my invention is to provide a vending machine foi` cards or other "thin articles which shall be e'icient in operation, which shall insure the proper feeding of the desired number ofcards, and which may be conveniently adjusted to vary v Fig. 1, but showing the parts as aHected by a proper coin.

Fig. 1 is a view similar to Fig. Q, but showing the parts after: they have been moved to operative* position as permitted by use of a proper coin.

Fig. 5 is asection taken on the line A5---5 of Fig.1.

Fig. 6 is a bottom plan view of my`invention.

Fig. 7 is a section on the yline, 7 7 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 8 is a section on the line 8-8 of- F ig. 5.

Fig. 9 is a section on the line 9 9 of Fig. 5. g 4. c.

Referring ,new to the 'drawings I have shown my invention as embodied in a machine for the 'vending of cards although it :is obviously capable of use in other connections. Such a machine comprises a cabinet l containing a compartment having therein a plurality of cards 2 supported by a plate 3 and having a weight 4 resting on the top of the stack of cards to hold them against the plate 3. This plate is cut away near its rear portion, as shown at 5 (Fig. 5) to permit operation of the mechanism for pulling out the cards. A portion of `this plate has been broken away in Fig. 5 for better illustration of the mechanism. Immediately in front of the plate 3 is a table 6 onto which a card is pulled upon operation of the machine.

The table 6 has an opening therein, in which opening is disposed my vending mechanism, said'mechanism and the table being sup orted upon the base 7, which is detac iably secured to the cabinet as by a screw 8 and bolt 8'; so that the base, vending mechanism, and table may be handled as a unit.

Resting on the base 7 is the base. platei9 upon which the outer end of the delivery slide 10 rests. The base plate yis .secured to the base and the delivery slide is held against the base plate by means of a pair of clamp plates 11, whereby the delivery slide may reciprocate in respect to the base plate. Suitable fastening means 12 pass through the clamp plates and 'base plate, as plainly shown in Figs. 5 and 7.

Mounted uponthe base 7 immediately in the rear of the base plate 9 is the base bar 13, best shown in Fig. 6. This bar hasa rounded front end 14 received within a corresponding recess in the rear of the `base plate. The base bar is secured to the base as by screws l5 at the rear end thereof and by engagement of the delivery slide at the frontend, the delivery slide in turn being retained by the clamp plates 11. The delivery slide comprises a handle 16 at its .forwarded end for operation and is further provided with a substantially circular opening 17, which may be made of any desired size depending upon the character of coin which it is intended that the machine be operated by, said opening being of a size to receive the coin. Extending from the rear side of the opening 17 is an elongated slot 18, best show-n in Figs. 2 and 6. EX- tending across the slot 18 are a plurality of locking bars 19 and 20. In this embodiment I have selected two of these bars as illustrative, but it is obvious that this number may be varied as desired.

Mounted on the rear end of the delivery slide 10 is vending means exemplified by the card puller 21. This puller is preferably made of thin sheet material bent to the form shown and having its rear edge turned over as at 22 to form a shoulder to engage the rear edge of the bottom card of the stack,

.the puller springing up suiiciently to engage that card. It is desirable to make the puller of sheet, material of substantially the thickness of one of the cards to be vended, so that when its edge is turned over as at 22, the shoulder will be just the proper thickness. In making the puller of this thickness of material, it has been found that it is not suiiiciently rigid to continue to do satisfactory work and I have therefore provided the reinforcement 23 extending substantially throu hout the length of the puller and made o? sufciently heavy material to furnish adequate support for the thin sheet metal thereof.

Depending from the rear of the delivery slide 10 is a stop member which may comprise a screw 24 and which reciprocates in a slot 25 in the base bar 13.' B reference to Fig. 6, it will be seen that this construc- .tion will serve to hold the parts together and at the' same time the screw 24 will act as a stop because of its engagement with the ends of the slot 25. The puller is secured to the delivery slide by screws 26 passing through the puller, the reinforcement 23 and entering the delivery slide 10. -The parts-are made of thin material and it is well known that it is difficult to obtain sufficient holding power with the end threads of a screw of this type. I have therefore provided slots 27 in the base bar 13 so as to receive the ends of these screws and permit the use of longer screws, thereby insuring better holding power between the screws and the base bar.

. The base bar 13 is provided with projecting lugs 28 provided with apertures in which are received corresponding lugs 29 on a keeper plate 30 disposed on top of the delivery slide. By upsetting the ends of the lugs 29, the keeper plate is rigidly and permanently secured to the base bar and the delivery slide is reciprocably mounted between the base bar and the keeper plate. Loosely mounted upon the rivet 31, which is secured to the keeper plate, is the trigger 32 having a cam projection 33 on the under side thereof and provided at its end with a downwardly extending hook 34. The cam projection and the hook extend downwardly through an opening 35 in the keeper plate and are held against downward movement by contact therewith. On either side of the trigger arelugs 36 struck up from the keeper plate, and co-operating with a spring 37 upon the upper surfaoe of the keeper plate to maintain the trigger in position. The spring in turn is held in position by a lug 38, which together with the messes lug 36 effectively prevents its being swung'` slide, which is shown in its normal position in Fig. 1. This slide without the coin can be moved rearwardly only to the position shown in Fig. 2, in which osition the locking bar 20 will be engage by the hook 34 ofthe trigger. It will therefore be seen that it is impossible for the puller 21 to engage the rear edge of a card to vend the same. However, when the proper coin is placed in the opening 17 and the delivery slide is pushed rearwardly, the coin which is indicated at 40 in Fig. 3, will engage the cam projection of the trigger thereby lifting the hook out of position wherein it would engage the locking bar 20. From an inspection of Fig. 3, it will be seen that this action takes place before the delivery slide is moved suiciently for the locking bar to engage the hook 34. The rearward movement of the delivery slide then continues to the position shown in Fig. 4, at which time the coin which is being carried rearwardly in the opening 17, comes over the enlarged end 41 of the opening 42 in the base bar 13. The coin is then discharged to the coin receptacle, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4. The forward movement of the delivery slide causes a card to be vended because of engagement of the shoulder 22 with the rear edge of the lowermost card of the stack. During this movement the cam project-ion 33 will ride over the locking bars 19v 17 is provided with and 20, the parts returning to the position shown in Fig. 1.

If a smaller coin than the proper one is Y used, it will be discharged through the small end 43 of the opening 42 in the base bar 13, before it has had an opportunity to lift the trigger. Although it may have lifted thetrigger sufficiently to cause the hook 34 to pass the locking bar 20, the coin will be discharged before the hook has had a chance to pass the locking bar 19, and

, therefore the machine can be operated conf' other article, which will actuate the trig -tinuously on one coin or piece of cardboard or the like, until the machine is exhausted. To avoidg-such fraud I have made the walls of the opening 17 in the form described so that it will be extremely diicult to wedge a coin or piece of paper therein, suc-h an article naturally falling out of the opening because of the outwardly inclined wall therepf. Furthermore, it will be apparent that'the trigger is lifted by the coin against the tension of the spring 37, so that when the coin comes to a position over the enlarged end 41 of Vthe opening 42, it will be positively ejected by the action of the sprin transmitted to the trigger. In actua practice I find that this action is a very positiveA and sure one.

Another. means of defrauding a machine of this type is to insert a proper coin, or any ger, pull the delivery slide out until a card is partially projected from the cabinet and then pull the card the rest of the way with f the lingers and return for another without bringing the delivery slide to its outward limit. This type of fraud iseffectually prevented by the provision of the second locking bar 19, whichy is so placed that when a card has been pulled out a sufficient distance to grasp with the fingers, or with an instru ment of any kind, the trigger will drop to bring the hook into engagement with the bar 19 so that the delivery slide may not be again moved rearwardly.

Another means Awhich has been practiced l to defraud this machine is to operate the de-l livery slide so violently that the trigger' will jump outof positionand the hook will rest yon tpp of the keeper plate 30. This type of ger justas effectually as if a horizontal p1v fraud is effectually prevented by the arrangement of lugs shown, these lugs not only retaining the trigger in its place, but

also effectually maintaining the .spring in.

contact with the trigger.

By attaching the trigger loosely to the keeper plate by means of the vertical rivet, I provide a structure which 'is extremely easy and inexpensively made and which will permit a vertical pivotal movement of the trigot were provided, it being obvious that the .provision of such a pivot would be greatly ,matches and packages of'gum by pushing the bottom one of a stack of such articles out from its position at the bottom of the stack. In vending comparatively thin artcles such as cards, however, a different problem is involved because of the difference in the thickness. I, therefore, prefer to provide a pulling mechanism which, as exemlilied herein,"comprises the puller 21, which 1s normally beneath the stack and which may be released by a suitable coin so as to travel backwardly to the extreme rear of the stack and there engage the rear edge of the bottom card. The thickness of cards varies considerably and moreover at times it may be desired to vend more than one card with one movement of the puller and therefore it becomes necessary to provide means for this purpose.V Such means is exemplified in this application by the slidable gauge in the cards, it is understood by that term that I intend to cover all articles of similar characteristics. l

I am aware that changes in the fornrlconstruction and arrangement of arts may be made without departing from t e spirit and without sacrificing the advantages of the 1nvention and I reserve the right to make all such changes as fairly fall within the scope of the following claim.

I claim:

In a coin controlled delivery mechanism, the combination of a base, a. .delivery slide on the base, a kee er on the base forming a guide for the sli e, a locking bar on the slide, a trigger on the keeper, and means on the keeper for holding said trigger in cooperative relation with the locking bar and comprising lugs on opposite sides of the trigger, another lug, and a spring mounted on the keeper and retained in position engaging the top of the trigger by one of said trigger lugs and Said other lug, l

JOHN F. MEYER. 

